mkf. With death toll numbers rising to 200,000 in Haiti’s devastating earthquake and people around the world uniting in prayers, donations and efforts to help, a photo started spreading through social networks, blogs and websites this morning, showing some weary, dusty Haitians with two items rescued from the debris: a tabernacle and a statue of the Virgin Mary, both absolutely intact. Jesus and Mary with their people, in the worst moments. Around the globe, the Schoenstatt family unites in prayer and donations for the Schoenstatt Family there and all those who suffer.
A candle lit at the Original Shrine, a Holy Mass celebrated there Saturday morning, prayer chains, donations – Schoenstatt’s heart goes out to Haiti.
Sister M. Joanne Buckley, Provincial Superior of the Schoenstatt Sisters of Mary in USA, Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic – from where Sisters and priests work with the Schoenstatt Family of neighboring Haiti – shares more details on Schoenstatt in Haiti and Archbishop Joseph Serge Miot, who died in the earthquake. The archbishop was buried beneath rubble along with 100 priests and aspiring priests attending a religious conference.
Archbishop Serge Miot – an instrument in the hands of the MTA
“We want to unite in praying for our Schoenstatt family there, and for all the victims and their families, especially for the repose of the soul of the Archbishop of Port-au-Prince. Archbishop Joseph Serge Miot was found dead in the debris of his office after the earthquake hit Haiti …
This Archbishop was very open for Schoenstatt. In 1980 , five years after his priestly ordination, he was in Germany and visited the Original Shrine. Although he knew very little about the movement, he sensed that Schoenstatt was what his archdiocese needed, so he prayed in the Original Shrine, begging that this movement with the MTA would come to Haiti. He felt that this spirituality could answer the needs of Haitian families. Years later his prayer was answered through a Pilgrim MTA that he received in 2001 from a group of Haitian women who had visited our shrine in La Victoria, Dominican Republic. From then on Archbishop Miot consistently supported the work of our sisters in his archdiocese. On October 30, 2002 he visited the shrine in La Victoria and celebrated Holy Mass there.
In his homily he shared about how he got to know Schoenstatt and how important it is for him and his archdiocese. Among other things he stated: “We have to continue praying because this movement precisely answers the needs of today’s families. I believe, too, that this spirituality would be very good for diocesan clergy. The diocesan clergy are not like the religious who have their own spirituality. And since the MTA is the mother of priests, she will help the priests do a good job to help in the salvation of souls.”
At least 14 home shrines in Port au Prince
Archbishop Miot therefore invited the Schoenstatt diocesan priests to introduce Schoenstatt to his priests and seminarians. He actively took part in the life of the small Schoenstatt family in Port-au-Prince. It was he who sent out the first pilgrim MTAs, and he also blessed the images for the home shrines. There are at least 14 home shrines in Port-au-Prince, and all these homes were probably damaged if not totally destroyed by the earthquake. We entrust the great need of this very poor country especially to our MTA and to our father, that they may work miracles of help and healing.
If even one person can find hope and fight for life by putting their hands into the hands of Jesus…
Sarah-Leah Pimentel did the translation of the first article on Haiti published the day after the earthquake. She writes:
This week at work was so busy that I just heard that there had been an earthquake – I didn’t see a single image. And then you hear the radio say they’re sending help but that is all.Then while translating I went onto the BBC website tonight and saw what a disaster it really was because of bad construction and these people are waiting to die if they don’t get help immediately. The Cathedral that witnessed that beautiful sending out and Crowning Mass is rubble. The Archbishop’s office collapsed under him, killing him. The presidential palace is rubble. The government ministries are in ruins and the ministers are still lying outside in body bags. If this is how the ‘powerful’ in a society die, then we can only imagine the poor man who has nothing to begin with. I mean, they made the commentary that the people in the squatter camps were the lucky ones because there was less concrete to fall on them. The president was speaking and he looks so lost, like he has no idea what to do next…his own house and possessions are also completely gone. He is even wearing a poor man’s shirt.
I think these images show the desperation of everyone in Haiti. It is difficult to find hope, but buried somewhere in all that mess are several Pilgrim Mothers. Maybe they went to Haiti for this. Maybe our MTA was meant to go into people’s homes for 8 years so that now she can be the mother to a lost child, a small comfort to the parents who have lost their children, a ray of light to those who are still underneath the rubble fighting for a reason to stay alive or a voice of encouragement to the aid workers who are flying in from all corners of the world to try and find a way to help.
Our Blessed Mother always shows us her son, even in the worst of situations, so if even one person can find hope and fight for life by putting their hands into the hands of Jesus, then the Pilgrim Mothers can lie buried under the concrete forever as a symbol of faith and hope and life, not of desolation and death…”
